I have to admit I was less than enthusiastic about this week’s project – but I happened to learn a lot.  So this week was one of discovery, rather than creativity.The project was about minimizing horizons – that should have been easy.  Well…..I started to question what exactly constituted a minimal horizon?  Less than the bottom third?  A sliver?  I didn’t realize how ingrained the rule of thirds was in my mind, until I started to mess with it.  So my interpretation is a little looser than it probably should have been – anything less than the bottom third (even if it’s just a smidgen) qualified.

In addition to realizing I now see in thirds, I also discovered the importance of the sky and what a difference it makes in an image.  Something has to be happening there whether its:

• Great cloud activity like in the featured photo (infrared is great for pulling the texture of clouds out)
• Color – I added the gradation of color in a couple of photos you see below
• Texture – when I wanted to create a specific mood like in the abandoned town we ran across I went to textures.
• Creative processing – I like the vintage looks for challenging what we are used to seeing – saturated blue skies.

Here are my picks this week (to view larger, click on an image below to enter slide show mode):